The number of Montgomery County students who dropped out of school citing a “lack of interest” more than doubled in the past 10 years, to about 900. Montgomery leads the state in the category.
Those who quit because bad grades has grown five-fold to more than 200 last year, from fewer than 40 a decade earlier, according to statistics kept by the Maryland State Department of Education. The total number of recorded dropouts in the county was about 1,300 in 2009, down from 1,400 in 2008.
Thousands more students fill out the paperwork to withdraw from one school, claiming they’ll transfer to another. But among those students, officials worry dropouts are undercounted.
“We have said [students] are going somewhere else, when they really aren’t and we don’t know where they are,” said Montgomery school board member and former principal Judy Docca, speaking recently at a County Council meeting.
Part of the problem, Docca said, is the lack of manpower to track students’ next steps once they withdraw from a school. Part of the solution will be the phasing in by 2012 of statewide student identification numbers that will follow students as they transfer — or don’t — from school to school.
“The numbers are going to be higher for dropouts,” Docca said.
Prince George’s County schools recorded far fewer withdrawals than Montgomery in most categories. It also had a lower graduation rate, meaning that undercounting likely is a more serious problem. Total recorded dropouts fell to about 590 in 2009, from 1,130 in 2008.
Over the past two years, the district has implemented policies designed to keep students in school, regardless of resistance, said school board member Heather Iliff. The new policies have played a role, she said, in cutting back on the number of students checking out.
“We had a situation in the past where if you had students who were not regularly attending school, or regularly getting into discipline problems, or failing all of their classes — in the old days it wasn’t uncommon when they turned 16 for someone in the school system to initiate a conversation about withdrawal,” Iliff said. “We’re saying that’s not OK anymore.” In Montgomery, schools have employed dozens of strategies to keep kids engaged, including an inexpensive Saturday-school option at 12 high schools, and school-based staff to track and help students at risk of dropping out. “Sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming,” Docca said. “In some instances there are so many kids you’re not able to do as much as you’d like to do.”
